Collected the new shells from T.D Fitchetts and put them in. An unpleasant job working from underneath the car. You just can't stop the oil dripping all over you!

The bottom end knock is now cured and the car is purring away again!

When I dropped the sump to do the bearings, these items were found in the bottom of the sump.

Seem to be parts from inside a mechanical fuel pump. The car had a new pump on it the week before I bought it, so thats probably where they've come from.

Coming home from work last week I laboured the engine slightly on my 1500 Spit on heard a slight bottom end knock from the engine. ( I only heard it once)The car runs fine, nice and cool and the oil light doesn't flicker so it seemed o.k.I changed the oil last weekend and then started it up and it sounded fine. I then got in the pit underneath it to check for any drips and when my head was near the sump, I could hear a knocking sound inside the bottom of the engine.

I dropped the sump and checked the big end bearings and the mains. Both has just run their coatings so I'll just replace the shells. The crank seemed fine

Overdrive Conversion

After deciding to fit an overdrive gearbox to my spitfire, I set about collecting the parts.
I bought the prop shaft, speedo cable and overdrive mount all new from my preferred supplier, T.D.Fitchett and an overdrive mounting plate off Ebay and a fully re-con J type overdrive gearbox from Canley Classics.

The gearbox was collected from Canley Classics and I installed the whole thing over a weekend. The clutch was changed at the same time.
This overdrive conversion, although ultimately quite pricey, has transformed the car and made it a lot more useable.

This it a list of the parts and prices involved:

Fully reconditioned J type overdrive and gearbox Canley Classics £512.87

Overdrive propshaft T.D. Fitchetts £69.00

Overdrive mounting plate Ebay £10.00

Overdrive mount T.D. Fitchetts £14.50

Overdrive speedo cable T.D. Fitchetts £8.50

HP90 gear oil Halfords £14.00

TOTAL COST = 628.87

Decided to add gas bonnet struts to try to eliminate the twist and uneven loading on the bonnet when opening it from one side.
I found a 1995 Rover 200 hatchback in the local breakers yard and removed the 2 struts and also the pivot pins which they connect onto.
I used existing holes in the front inner wheel arch and drilled 2no. 10mm holes in the outer side of the hingeboxes.
I then attached the pivots using nylocs.
The existing bonnet prop was removed and the only other mod that I needed to make was to re-route the 2 flexible pipe coming from the air filter box so that they didn't catch the offside strut when closing the bonnet.
I've got to say that this modification was an absolute piece of cake, took about 20 minutes to do ( after I'd got the struts) and works perfectly. Total cost £15.00 Bargain!